Zhang Han, who left his hometown and was a leader in another place in the Jin Dynasty, was not a person with ambition and great realm. Every time the autumn wind blew, he would think of the delicious taste of water shield and sea bass in front of his house: "The autumn wind blew and the leaves flying, and the water of Wujiang is so fat. I have not returned from my home for three thousand miles, and I am so sad that I look up to the sky..." Finally, I couldn't stand it and quit my official position and went back to my hometown to satisfy my cravings. Since then, many people have tried every means to go to Jiangnan to taste water shield and sea bass, as if everyone is a kind of literary man.

Shang Disease. Lu You said: "This year, I tasted the vegetables in the new night, and I am coming with the bass." Ouyang Xiufa sighed: "The Qing lyrics are not inferior to the name of Jiangdong, and it is hard to understand when I return home. I suddenly felt like I was in the autumn wind, and white clams, water shield, and water shield is sausage and perch soup." Even Bai Juyi also wrote "Occasional Songs": "There are still sea bass, water shield, and it may be planned to go to Jiangdong in the spring." Although they are all foreign lands, it does not prevent these cultural people who already have a lot of sour water from using the topic to express their homesickness.

I have tasted water shield and sea bass, but it is difficult to eat both at the same time. Sea bass was bought in the vegetable market, and it must be just a name. I still cannot be sure what sea bass is like swimming in Wujiang. The developed root system connects the water shield of Zhang Han's era, but I have eaten it several times. In my early years, I thought that water shield was born by the autumn wind, and it could only be eaten in autumn. In fact, spring is the most tender cardamom year of Shirami. "The flowers are full of Su Di, willows are full of smoke, and it is the sunny day when picking water shield.

", it is the scene of West Lake picking water chestnut. Water shield only appears in the lakes and ponds in the south of the Yangtze River. Only the misty Jiangnan and ink-wash Jiangnan have grown this kind of watery and delicate beauty with an extremely soft waist. In West Lake in Hangzhou, by Taihu Lake in southern Jiangsu, April day on earth, seeing that all the tenderness is about to be replaced by the vigorous and unrestrained summer, I can't help feeling sad. Fortunately, there are still curved water chestnuts, running and dancing lively among the water, grasping its slippery and intoxicating taste, and keeping the thoughts of spring in the mouth.

A song in the 28th chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions": "I can't drop all my lovesickness and tears throw red beans, I can't bloom spring willows and flowers fill the painting building. I can't sleep steadily in the gauze window, after the wind and rain, I can't forget the new sorrows and old sorrows, I can't swallow the jade grains and the golden water full of my throat, I can't see the diamond-shaped mirror, which describes thinness, the eyebrows that cannot be opened, and the unknown ones are even more leaking. Oh! It's like the green mountains that cannot be covered, and the green water that flows continuously..." The sadness of spring, I can't sing out the sorrows and helplessness that Daiyu's sister and a daughter of the Red Mansion cannot relieve. Here is the best food for water.

In fact, like shark fin, water shield itself has no taste. Only by adding it to the soup and mixing it with shredded chicken, ham and other meat food can it be extended. Ye Shengtao is from southern Jiangsu and is well aware of the beauty of this thing. He once said that water shield "the tender green color and rich poetry, and the tasteless taste is really intoxicating." More than 30 years ago, I ate water shield for the first time in a restaurant in Wuxi. It was a bowl of soup, a few slices of slender and dark green leaves, which looked like tea but not tea, and it floated leisurely in the soup with exquisite meatballs and fresh green bamboo shoots. Scoop a spoonful of soup and leaves and put it in the mouth. It felt smooth and crispy. It tasted carefully, and it had a refreshing fragrance and was very delicious. It taught people to remember the taste of mouth and tongue that I had never had before.

Later on a sunny day in late spring, I ran to the side of Taihu Lake to see how water shield grows. Water shield floats on the water surface, with small round leaves like copper coins, fresh green on the front and purple-red on the back, looking smooth and tender. When I pick it up, I feel slippery and sticky when I touch it with my hands. This water shield is very similar to a water grass commonly known as "hengyehelizi" in the pond in my hometown. Some people there pick their tender stems in early summer to eat them, but I have never seen anyone eat them. Looking at the women of Taihu Lake picking water shield, they are like picking tea, sweeping left and right, and picking only new leaves that have not yet been stretched out in the water. The feeling of the fingertips is extremely delicate and precise. The new leaves are as small as spindles, and are covered with a layer of Qingming glue.

Wrapped, it reflects the light of spring water tremblingly, full of spirituality and poetry. It is said that water shield cannot be rowed. If the rowing action is too big, the water marks caused by the small water shield will float away. Only sitting in a wooden basin slowly approaches, find tender buds that have not been exposed from the water surface between the already spreading round leaves, and pick them against the stems on the stem. When you get your eyes and hands, you can gently sweep them with your fingertips. The harvest period of water shield is very long. From mid-April to late September every year, it can be picked every two or three days. The yield is the highest in July, but the taste of spring water shield is the best. Imagination, every time the picking season, water shield is rippling on the water surface, and the girls sit in the wooden basin, exploring their waists in front of their fingertips, picking tender water shields... full of poetry.

By the West Lake in Hangzhou, water chestnuts are called horseshoe grass by locals. They can be seen in shallow waters such as Fenghe, Huagang Fish Watching, and Santan Moon Mirroring. Interestingly, the horseshoe grass on the water surface of the ponds in the non-tourism area of ​​West Lake are mostly planted with cuttings. Ponds with cofferdams are drained before planting, and then the fine and soft stem seedlings are inserted into the mud like seedlings. The stems and leaves look fat, tender and juicy, and are covered with the water surface. The tender water chestnuts are all soaked in water buckets and sent to the restaurant kitchen as soon as possible to cook fresh "West Lake water shield soup", "water shield yellow croaker soup" and "shrimp mixed with water shield". If you harvest too much and cannot transport it for a while, you can dry it for a long time.

There are some specialties in cooking water shield. A friend from Hangzhou told me that whether it is soup or stir-frying, you must blanch it in boiling water first to remove the bitterness. If you have no experience and do not control the heat well, the color of water shield will turn black and yellow. Therefore, it is best to put the water shield in a colander and pass it in a boiling water, keep the green color, and put it in a soup bowl for later use. Then choose the tenderest piece of toothpick meat on the chicken breast (this piece of meat will not be firewood after it is cooked), cut it into thinner shreds than match sticks, cut the ham into thin strips, put it in the pot and boil it, pour it on the water shield, and then drizzle it with cooked chicken oil. The green water shield, paired with snow-white chicken breasts and crimson ham, is very beautiful. If you make the soup, the water shield in the soup is green, the chicken legs are red, the color is bright and the flavor is unique.

A few times I have eaten in Wuxi, Suzhou and Wujiang, the waiter with thin shirt and wide sleeves served the soup made of fresh water. The green and refreshing appearance of water shield has no change in the ecology of water. It is still tightly wrapped in spindle shape, just like the green scoop spring. It tastes a little elastic on the tip of the tongue. The rich aroma and deliciousness of ham and chicken are the smooth taste of water shield and the slightly bitter taste of fragrance, which is very pleasant. I ate water shield in Wuhan. Although it is fresh, it is somewhat high-standard.

The meaning of this is, but it is only a small bowl of base soup for each person who is given before moving the chopsticks. It is the so-called "drink soup before drinking to keep your stomach safe." A few small pieces of water-burning sea cucumber have been added. The color is gray-green. It finally makes the teeth and tongue hook, and when it is carried, it completely dispersed and melted, like chewing a piece of tea that has been soaked many times, and I can't find the feeling of being wrapped in the gelatinous texture. Perhaps this kind of pure dish is only served with chewing and slow chewing, and should not appear in the wine aura of the cups and drinking.

It is hard to meet fresh water shield, so I have never asked about the pot and wok here. This spring I went to Hangzhou and brought back a small bag of dehydrated fresh water shield. The color was the not-so-eye-sweet green. After returning home, soaked it, blanched it in water, and simplified the ingredients to only meatballs and shrimps... Oh, in a bowl of clear soup, a dark green, tender white and light red slice was swaying, full of fragrance, which was quite worthy of the mouth.
Chapter completed!